Category Archives: activism

What better way to restart posting on this blog than an with an angry post.

This video has been making the rounds on social media and blogs:

I am appalled that some pro-gun folks are actually siding with the cops here.

I’m sorry, the cops were wrong in this case. I would have no problem with the cop questioning the guy with the long gun about whether or not, in his opinion, his actions are hurting or helping the right to keep and bear arms if he was out of uniform, without his badge, while off duty. I’ve had conversations with off duty cops on these very things. The carriers were doing nothing illegal and should not be subjected to intimidation over a fricken’ opinion, particularly with a cop standing at the fricken’ ready position with her gun drawn. I guess we can be grateful that she didn’t have it pointed at his head. It was the cops who were guilty of egregious behavior, not those peaceable, armed citizens.

UNC, like most universities today, is a cesspool of ‘progressivism’. When its School of Government expresses a legal opinion on state laws, city councilmen and county commissioners stand up and listen. The UNC SOG’s opinion has been quite helpful in convincing municipal governments here in NC to repeal their illegal bans on guns throughout their municipal parks. Jeff Welty is the usual contact for these types of opinions. He just put up a post called “How Should the Police Respond to a Report of a Man with a Gun?” and brought up this particular case as an example. His opinion is that it was not appropriate for the officers to unholster their weapons. In fact, he even opines that the detention, where the officer simply pontificates on his opinion of Second Amendment activism long after it was clear that no crime had been committed was inappropriate.

Read this embedded link to the PA Chiefs of Police Association bulletin on dealing with open carriers. Oh, if only all police departments followed its advice. This would have been a non-event. As it should have been.

I don’t know Mr. Welty’s politics. But when a typically ‘progressive’ institution agrees that a defacto detainment of an open carrier was unjustified, I suggest we step aside and accept the reprieve from official harassment. Heck, we may even be able to use these items (both Welty’s article and the PA CoPA bulletin) to encourage other police departments to follow suit.

Here’s the money quote from the PA CoPA bulletin:

Recognize that the open carrier may be an activist looking to entrap you into a constitutional confrontation. Don’t take the bait! Keep your views on open carry to yourself. Otherwise, you are inviting an escalation, and doing so unnecessarily. On the other side of the coin, beyond the decorum associated and expected of a professional police officer, you are not obligated to listen to a speech from an open carry advocate, or to answer a pre-planned series of questions on your understanding of the law. Again, absent any aggravating circumstances (e.g., terroristic threats, being spit upon, being pushed, etc.) give them a nod and wish them a good day. [Emphasis mine.]

Granted, I think the PA CoPA has the wrong idea about (most) open carry activists. We’re not looking to entrap you. All we want is to be left alone. I don’t really care that they’ve got that wrong, though, because they are still admonishing their officers to do just that: leave us alone when we indicate that we don’t want a confrontation with you. Most activists are demonstrating and educating others that a handgun in a holster or a properly slung rifle is nothing to fear. The average criminal doesn’t keep his handgun in a proper holster. The average mass murderer doesn’t have his rifle slung, but rather is likely to be carrying at the ready. There’s a huge difference, and cops, in particular, should be able to distinguish that difference with five seconds of remote observation. And the lecturing cop was dead wrong about the average concealed handgun licensee: unlike him, we don’t automatically assume that someone carrying a slung rifle is a bad guy. In fact, it’s just the opposite.

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I have to wonder if Curtis is still around and reads my posts. If you are, please watch the video below and learn.

It is absolutely not a probable cause to stop anyone legally carrying a firearm for the sole reason of legally carrying a firearm (insofar as the absolute human right to keep and bear arms is respected and not unconstitutionally prohibited in the jurisdiction in question). “Getting calls,” and “concern,” and “public safety,” are irrelevant.

More cops need to be slapped down like this. Though not the purpose of carrying openly, where cops keep doing this they need to be dragged through the court system until they stop. This is the essence of open carry activism.

And Rob Pincus and James “I put cameramen in the firing-zone” Yeager can suck my 1911.

Update: For those using readers that see multiple posts for updated posts, apologies. Stupid embedded Youtube links always seem to end up too big in Blogger. Way to go Google. Also, forgot to give credit. h/t Raeshawn via ENDO-Mike at Everyday No Days Off – Gun Blog

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After sending the text of my previous post to all seven Johnston County Commissioners, I got a response back from three of them. The first one just said “Thanks for the email” and that was that. Nice discourse.

The third one was actually from a clerk who simply sent me Allen Mims’ (the Chairman) memo explaining the delay of the hearing and formation of the working group, which I had already read.

But the second one was from Vice Chairman Commissioner Jeff Carver who said simply, “Thanks for the email, please call me to discuss.”

Well. That was more than I expected. So I took him up on the offer, got his cell phone number from him and called him later that night. We spoke for 20 minutes or so about a number of things I mentioned in my email (which he said he thought was the longest he’d ever received, even outside his role as Commissioner) as well as some other points. I’ll include some details from that conversation in another follow-up post.

But, at the end of the conversation he suggested I take a few days to digest what we talked about and that if I wanted to speak with him again, or even meet with him person, that he’d be happy to oblige. I’m happy to report that I took him up on the offer and Mr. Carver didn’t renege on the agreement to meet with me. Knitebane, another friend from Johnston County and I met with the Commissioner today for lunch and discussed several issues surrounding this proposed ordinance for about 45 minutes. I would like to publicly thank Vice Chairman Jeff Carver for meeting with three Johnston County citizens in person to discuss our concerns. I’ll include details of today’s conversation in my follow-up to be posted later tonight or sometime this weekend.

I don’t know whether or not, even with reinforcements, we’ve swayed the Commissioner much or at all. But what this post is mostly about is something I think Arctic Patriot said first not long ago. It’s the concept of a necessary fail. I can’t begin to describe my frustration with both family members and friends and acquaintances who assert that “it doesn’t matter what you do or say or who you vote for…the whole process is corrupt and there is no point in participating.” And yet those same people will complain to no end about one government action or another. Or even, if you can believe it, scream for the government to do something about some disaster or another (bank collapse, mass shooting). These same people who moan on and on about their government being corrupt, incompetent, or about them not having a voice, demand that that very government come to the rescue.

The necessary fail here is making your voice heard. Stand up and declare that your rights are not up for majority vote. They are not negotiable. Like I said once, Three Percenters (or the three percent credo) are consistently misrepresented. None of them I know are hoping for the shooting to start. But as Mike Vanderboegh keeps saying, there is little hope that this government will be able to restrain itself. They will overreach to the point of violence. Some say they already have, but I mean there will be a violent action by this government that even those who seriously believe that it can’t happen here will be calling for resistance.

Should that happen, and you find yourself needing to make the choice to defend yourself and your family against a government out of control with rage and making up trumped up charges to boot-stomp your face because of what you believe, in my opinion, you will be obliged to ask yourself a simple question or two: “Do I have the moral authority to pull that trigger? Have I done everything in my power to prevent it from getting to this point?”

If the answer is No to either of those questions, then what makes you think fighting for your freedom at the point of a gun is going to bring about a restored republic if you haven’t trained yourself through repetition and taught your offspring to keep on reminding those in political office who really is in charge?

Yes, I know it feels pointless. Yes, I know both major parties more and more seem to be two wings of the same party. Yes, I know that some of the tea partiers seem to have been compromised already. That’s no excuse. You must do your part.

This is the first time I have ever met face to face with a politician in my life. And my life flashed before my eyes. Seriously, though, it was probably the most important political action I’ve ever taken in my life. No armed rally, no campaign contribution, no letter writing, no voting could accomplish what I did today. We made our voices heard directly, three feet or less in front of his face. He knows we mean business. He knows we will be at the hearing when it is rescheduled. If he doesn’t listen…well, we’ve done our part. And I will feel justified in violating the ordinance every chance I get. And taken to a larger political scale with more egregious infringements, more serious acts of disobedience.

Stay tuned and later tonight or this weekend I’ll have some information on what we talked about with Commissioner Carver.